Example & Training Blog Post
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Key Takeaways:
- Formatting your blog post for normal and AI search engines includes the use of subheadings and short paragraphs.
- You should also ensure your blog posts are comprehensive, authoritative, and trustworthy.
- ALT Text and filenames are important for image SEO.
- Blog posts can include a range of different types of content blocks, including a Markdown block that can be used for Key Takeaways or pullquotes.
This is an introduction, and it should ideally be 2-3 simple sentences that describe what this blog post is about, and why it is important to readers. Learning how to write for search engines and how to optimise your blog content for AI search is critical if you want your content to be discovered online. Find out some of the most important elements to include, how to format your post, as well as technical details that help increase visibility of your blog posts.
Don’t use long paragraphs
Remember when writing for the web, you should always use short paragraphs, ideally no longer than 2 sentences (or 3 if they are very short). That’s because it is much easier to read on screen when the blocks of text are shorter than with printed documents.
Subheadings are important
You should always break up your text with multiple subheadings. Since 79% of website users skim text rather than reading word-for-word, using subheadings makes it easier to skim. Subheadings are also important places to put your SEO keywords.
Another subheading to show a new topic
This is still part of the overall subheading’s topic, but these sub-subheadings are here to make the text easy to skim to find the parts that are interesting to the user.
Something interesting here, a subtopic of the main one
Using sub-subheadings can draw attention to topics and provide a hierarchy for the page. Information hierarchies are good for SEO, since the sub and sub-subheadings tell Google what this page is about.
Call to action box
Paste the first half of your blog post above the call to action box, and paste the second half of your blog post below the call to action box. Even better if the call to action box sits at a spot in your blog post that would naturally lead into the reader wanting to take the next step.
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Formatting your blog content for Google
If the goal of your blog posting activities is to generate more traffic from Google, then you should always aim to satisfy the Google guideline that says Google prefers content that is “informative, comprehensive and satisfies the user’s search query”.
Use 800 words as a minimum, ideally 1,000+
Comprehensive means a bare minimum of 800 words. Anything less than 500 words will basically be invisible to Google. That’s what we call in the industry “thin content”. Medium length is 500-1000 words. Long is 1000+ words.
Long articles perform better
Statistically speaking, the average length of a page that ranks in the top 10 on Google is 2,000 words. So if you want to rank well, it’s a good idea to aim for over 1,000 words. That’s why using subheadings is so important.
Use internal links with keywords
Google also likes to see plenty of internal text links that point to other pages on your website. Use keywords on your links, for example: find an ADHD coach. Internal links not only direct readers to related pages on your website, but also play a vital role in SEO. You can link to other blog posts or web pages on your website whenever it flows naturally as part of the text in your article.
Formatting blog content for AI search
LLMs (Large Language Models) such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Claude or other AI tools look for slightly different signals than traditional search engines. If you want to stand a chance to rank well for AI search, you are already covering one base by blogging, because AI search is heavily weighted in favour of structured “article” content and content that is frequently updated.
Include a Summary or Key Takeaways section at the top
LLMs love to find concise, informative answers to the search queries people input as prompts. By adding a Key Takeaways section at the top, you make it easy for LLMs to reference your articles in their summaries. Your Key Takeaways should be a set of bullets or short, simple sentences that encapsulate what the article covers.
Include an About the Author bio
One of the factors that LLMs look for is authoritativeness and first-hand experience and expertise on a topic. Include an author bio at the end of your article that encompasses your experience and expertise specifically as it relates to the topic you are writing about.
Include citations / links to other reputable sources of information
LLMs prefer to rank articles that are credible and trustworthy. One way to indicate the trustworthiness of your article is to include links/references to other people who are experts in this field. Links to academic papers, recognised authorities such as professional associations or industry leaders, or other highly visible and reputable sources of factual information can be a good way to signal the credibility of your article.
Formatting blog content for other purposes
It’s not always realistic to write every single blog post with the aim of attracting Google clicks. So don’t panic if not all of your blog posts meet these criteria. It’s totally normal to have a mixture of types and lengths of blog posts in your blog.
"This is a Markdown block. You can use it for pullquotes."
Focus your SEO efforts on clickworthy topics
Sometimes you might just have a quick news announcement or other reason to blog besides for SEO. These are unlikely to attract Google clicks anyway, so don’t waste your time trying to optimise these posts to the Nth degree.
Write these posts naturally and link to them from your newsletter or social media - it’s not always about Google. Spend the saved time researching and crafting your SEO blog posts.
Using images in blog posts
Using images or infographics can also help break up long posts and make them easier to read.
Don’t forget to add ALT text to your images
ALT text should be descriptive and use keywords naturally, for example: ADHD coaches Alex Campbell and Katie Friedman
Use keyword-rich image filenames, too - for example: ADHD-coaches.jpg
You can set both the ALT text and the image filename in the image editor when you add the image to the page.
Wrapping text around images
If you just want the image to appear small and have the text wrap around it, like you would see in a newspaper, you can do that in Squarespace, too.
All you need to do is drag the image down to the place you want to wrap and release the drag when you see the blue rectangle.
Once released, you can hover over the left/right side of the image block and drag the line arrow icon to reduce or expand the image size.
Other types of content blocks
You can use any other types of content block in a blog post, from an image gallery to a video to a form or map. Any of the Squarespace content blocks are available to insert into a blog post.
About the Author
Alex Campbell is an ICF credentialed ADHD Coach, BACP psychotherapist, keynote speaker and author. He specialises in ADHD and neurodiversity training for adults and organisations, supporting confidence, capability and psychologically safe practice.
